


till the sun comes out

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Learning Normal, Finding Home [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 07:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war, something had to change.</p><p>(Can stand alone - you don't have to read the rest of the LNFH-verse if you don't want to.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	till the sun comes out

**Author's Note:**

> I realised that there was a gap in the LNFH timeline, with some very important pieces missing from everybody's lives. So this covers from after the war - probably September, give or take - vaguely into the college years for Annabeth, Nico, and Percy (and Jason!).  
> Bonus points for anybody who notices the direct connection between this and one of the chronologically later shorts.  
> (Also: I'm not changing the author's note on the first-written short, even though this one is going before it, because that author's note makes me laugh. 'Probably won't write any more in this 'verse,' past-me said. Now here I am, 13 shorts later... wow. This is one hell of a thing.)

Annabeth found him. It took her most of the day, not because he was going to any particularly extreme lengths to be hidden but because every time she got close he ran off.

She knew why, of course. He didn't think she did, probably thought she thought what everybody else did, but she knew.

She dropped to the ground next to him, letting her legs dangle over the side of the dock. He started to stand up, but she gently set her hand on his and he stilled.

<“You're leaving.” It's a statement, not a question. She'd talked about it with Jason, who was becoming increasingly distressed by the urgency with which their friend-acquaintance-ally was preparing to run away.

“What's it to you?” he asked. Snapped, really. Annabeth knew to just roll with it. He'd always been short with her, for the aforementioned but unacknowledged reason.

“We're – well, we  _should be_ friends,” Annabeth said. She ran her free hand through her hair. “Nico, we should be friends.”

He made this strange, strangled sound that was probably supposed to be something like a laugh. “What does that even mean, Annabeth?”

“It means... it means Percy's not the only one who dropped the ball with you,” she answered quietly. “It's easy to forget, with how self-sufficient you try to be, that you're just a kid. Don't argue,” she added, when he opened his mouth to do exactly that, “we all are.”

“I don't understand,” Nico said.

“We were friends, for a while, right?” Annabeth said. She wasn't really sure where she was going with this, only that it felt right to say it. “You didn't always hate me.”

“I don't -”

“Dislike, then.” She turned her head and shoulders slightly so she could look at Nico. “This whole Percy thing kind of screwed us over, yeah?”

“Wh-what?” Nico asked, startled.

Annabeth squeezed Nico's hand. “I know.”

“But – but I – I don't know what you're talking about,” spluttered Nico.

Annabeth frowned. “This is not why I spent all day looking for you.”

“Then why?”

“Because – because -” Annabeth tried to begin. She sighed. “Because, like my seaweed brained boyfriend, I feel guilty. I had an opportunity, two years ago, to help you. And I didn't. I wasn't sure what to make of you, and I didn't know how to handle your whole son of Hades thing, and I was only a kid myself. I'm  _still_  only a kid. But we all got thrown into that labyrinth mess, and I was supposed to be a leader and honestly you kind of freaked me out.”

“You're not doing a very good job of... whatever you're trying to do,” Nico said.

“Sorry,” said Annabeth. “For once I didn't really plan ahead.”

“Why not?” Nico asked, caught off guard.

“Jason said you were leaving,” Annabeth said. Her gaze returned to the water.

Neither of them said anything for a while after that. They sat in remarkably easy silence, hands still together on the dock.

“I don't hate you,” he said quietly. When she looked up, she saw that he was watching her nervously. “I never did, I just – you're always  _with him_  and I don't -”

Annabeth squeezed his hand again. “I'm sorry.”

“Don't be. It's not your fault I'm...” he trailed off, and it was hard to tell exactly where he was going, but Annabeth got the idea.

“I can understand why you want to leave,” she said. “And don't worry, I won't breathe a word of why to Percy. That's a conversation for the two of you to have to have. Soon, if he catches up to you like he keeps saying he means to. But -” she paused, taking a moment to carefully choose her next words, “don't be a stranger, alright? Promise you'll come back.”

And then Nico did something that surprised Annabeth.

He leaned over and tentatively kissed her on the cheek.

“Yeah,” he said quietly after shifting back again. “I will.”

–

“Do you really  _have_  to go?” Jason asked.

“Yeah,” said Nico. “I've got to – I can't -” he sighed. “It's complicated. And difficult. And painful. It's for the best, okay?”

“But -”

“Annabeth told me that Percy has recently remembered that I exist and wants to make up for being an absolutely terrible excuse for a friend,” said Nico.

“I'm sure she didn't phrase it like that,” Jason commented.

“- and can you imagine how much of a mess that's going to be? He can barely make heads or tails of his  _own_  emotions, let alone somebody else's!” Nico continued, as if Jason hadn't spoken. “He has no idea how much damage he's caused!”

“You can't avoid talking to him forever,” said Jason. Nico deflated a little.

“I need to figure myself out first.”

“Fair enough,” Jason said. He patted Nico on the shoulder. “Just don't disappear completely, okay?”

“Why does everybody think I'm going to drop off the face of the earth?” said Nico. “Hazel keeps checking on me, like I'd leave without saying good-bye or something. Annabeth made me promise I'd come back. And now you!”

“You have a bit of a record,” Jason reminded him. “Not to mention that you told me specifically that you were planning to leave and never come back not a month ago.”

“That's – I – fine,” Nico said. “You're right.”

“So...?”

“I won't,” said Nico. “You'll see me again. I promise.”

–

Nico kept his word. Over the next year, Jason saw him eight times. He knew that Annabeth saw him more, well away from Percy (they'd agreed on this, Nico told Jason one day, because they'd decided that they wanted to be Actual Human Friends and having Percy around wouldn't be good for that). Hazel had Nico at least check in every other saturday, and if he didn't show up at Camp Jupiter once a month he risked her wrath. Jason also had it on good authority that Nico had visited Reyna once or twice, to check in, catch up, and help with the reconciliation effort that she and Annabeth were leading.

As far as Jason knew, though, Percy hadn't seen Nico once.

The confirmation for this suspicion came one spring afternoon, when Percy was talking about his education.

“- but, I mean, if the girls can get things worked out, I'm probably just gonna go to school in New Rome,” Percy said. “That's another year from now, right? Plenty of time for them to work it all out.”

“I'm pretty sure they'll have it sorted out before then,” said Jason. “Actually I'm pretty sure Nico said something about actually learning something next year, so you might see him around when you get there.”

“You've talked to Nico?” asked Percy, looking surprisingly... surprised.

“Yeah,” Jason said, shrugging. “We went for ice cream with Hazel while Frank and Reyna were doing Praetor stuff.”

“But – but he hasn't been to Half-Blood in  _months_! And he just stopped over in New Rome for  _ice cream_?!” said Percy.

Jason frowned. “Annabeth said he was at Camp Half-Blood three weeks ago.”

“Has  _everybody_  seen him but me? He doesn't even like Annabeth!”

“You know, that's not really the impression I've gotten from them,” Jason replied.

“But – but Nico was supposed to be  _my_  friend, and he's been avoiding me since before the whole Gaea thing was even finished with,” Percy said. Complained, really. “But you see him around and Annabeth sees him – I can understand him visiting Hazel, she's his sister, but  _you?_  He barely knows you!”

“Hey!” Jason exclaimed. “Look, I get that you're _jealous_  that suddenly you're not his only friend in the world anymore, but -”

“I'm not jealous!” Percy said. “I'm just -”

“You literally  _just_  expressed distaste for him choosing to spend time with me rather than you,” Jason reminded him. “In what version of the universe is that  _not_  considered jealousy?”

“I'm just trying to look out for him. He barely knows you.”

“No, Perce. He barely knows  _you_. Or rather, you barely know him.”

“What are you _talking_ about?”

Jason sighed. “You know what? I think Nico mentioned checking in with the girls about the peace talks next thursday. Why don't you try to actually catch him for once, instead of just waiting for him to come talk to you?”

–

“Hey! Hey, Nico!”

Nico resisted the urge to groan. No, he could do this. He'd been talking this over with Annabeth and Jason for months, he could handle one dumb conversation with Percy Jackson.

He turned on his heel and did his best to smile like a real person. “Hey, Percy. Long time no see.”

“No kidding,” Percy replied. “If I didn't know better, I'd think you'd been avoiding me.” He fluffed his hair with one hand. “You haven't, have you?”

Nico took a deep breath. “About that... you know, we should talk. Like, for real talk, not -” he waved his hand vaguely in Percy's direction, “whatever you had planned.”

“I wanted to talk for real,” Percy protested.

“Yeah, you've got a great history with that,” Nico said. He squeezed his eyes shut, taking a breath. “No, I don't know that. It isn't your fault  _entirely_  that we haven't talked properly.”

“So, uh, are we going to? Talk?”

“Yeah,” said Nico. “I think we should. Cabin?”

“Mine's closer,” Percy said.

They walked together in faux-comfortable silence. Nico didn't say a word until they were both settled on one of the unused beds in the Poseidon cabin.

“So,” said Percy.

“I haven't been seeking you out,” Nico said. “But I haven't been avoiding you. We've been at Camp at the same time plenty of times this year.”

“How was I supposed to know that?”

“I don't know, maybe you could've looked. You know, with your eyes.”

“You know, you didn't exactly come running, either,” Percy reminded him.

Nico dropped his face onto his hands. “I didn't come here for this.”

“What?”

“Jason warned me, told me to watch out, because you might try to track me down today,” Nico explained. “And I thought,  _hey_ , maybe I can handle this, this whole  _talking to Percy_  thing. But then – why can't you just say 'oh, I didn't realise you were here'? Why does it have to be  _my_  fault that you didn't care where I was until you realised that Jason saw more of me than you do?”

“I never -”

“You never _what_ , Percy?” Nico snapped. “Never stopped to realise that  _we aren't actually friends_?”

“We're friends,” said Percy, “we're definitely friends.”

“Percy,” Nico said, somewhere between exasperation and desperation, “we _aren't_. Haven't you noticed? Our entire relationship is built on hero worship and a promise you made to a dead girl that you couldn't even manage to keep!”

“I did my best to keep my promise to Bianca,” Percy said defensively.

“ _Bull. Shit_.” Now, Nico really wasn't one for swearing, but it felt very satisfying to watch Percy's face as he processed what Nico had just said. “You've said more than once, every year since we've met, even, to someone who's never me, that you'd look out for me. You'd do your best to do right by me. Annabeth told me you've said that more than just the once. And never once have you managed to follow through.” He took a deep, calming breath. “Percy, we aren't friends. We're acquaintances. Allies. I'm somebody you call on when you get into trouble and never anytime else.”

“I didn't mean for it to be like that,” said Percy quietly, apologetically.

“I know.”

“It's not – it's not too late, is it? I can -”

“Actually try, for once?”

“Yeah.”

“I think I'd like that.”

“Really?”

“That's why I'm here. I didn't come to yell at you.”

“Then, uh, why _did_  you...?”

Nico pulled his knees up to his chest. “Because I  _do_  think we should be friends. And because not speaking to you makes being friends with Annabeth very complicated.”

“That reminds me,” Percy said, “I hadn't realised that the two of you were friends.”

“You might consider working on your observational skills. I'm not sure how you've survived so long without them.”

–

Two years passed, and things were... okay.

One might even say that things were going well.

Annabeth and Percy had started college in New Rome, and they weren't living together because Annabeth's father insisted that that was Not To Be Done. Percy and Nico were doing friendy things like actually interacting and having conversations. Reyna and Annabeth were running the newly-formed Camp exchange program with slightly terrifying efficiency. Hazel and Frank were being cute, because they were very good at that.

It wasn't perfect, of course. Sometimes Percy was still slow to catch on and unobservant, sometimes Nico still retreated when everybody was a bit much, but on the whole, it was working.

Working was enough for now. 


End file.
